I'm Painting Flowers For You Alex
by StayAwakeAmber
Summary: Jace was just your average All Time Low fan but her family is broken. Her little sister has lung cancer and is in hosptial. When Jace meets Alex everything changes but can everything change for the good? Alex Gaskarth Jack Barakat Zack Merrick Rian Dawson All Time Low
1. I'm a cancer

'oh my god Nicki could you drive any faster!' I said bouncing in the front seat of her car.

'I'm already going faster than the limit already Jace!' she said laughing 'We'll get there on time, calm yow tits!'

I sighed and leaned back aginst her car seats. She was driving me to the meet and greet for my favourite band, All Time Low and we were going to be late and I was going to miss it. I'd been waiting for years to actually finally meet them and i wasn't going to make it! she swerved round the corner and pulled up in front of the venue. the show didn't actuallt start for another few hours and there was already a moderate sized line. I threw open the car door and ran over to the bouncer who was at the front door.

'Jace Taylor. I'm down for the meet and greet.' i said hurridly. he raised his eye brows and looked down at the sheet he was holding, he nodded and opened the door for me. i let out a relieved sigh.

'Meet me by the merch table as soon as its done kay?' Nicki said and I nodded before running inside. i opened the doors to the huge hall and there were loads of people in there. there were 4 clumps of people which I guess was where each member was standing. i walked over to the first one. Zack was standing, talking to a girl who had the biggest smile I'd ever seen.

'Hey!' he said to me, noticing I'd just walked over. My throat closed up.

'Uh hi.' I managed to choke out. He smiled.

'Do you want anything signed or a picture or something?' he said, perfectly friendly.

'Could you sign this for my little sister?' i asked and pulled the spare ticket I had from my pocket. My 14 year old little sister Jessica was supposed to be coming with me, but a few months ago she's developed cancer and was hospitalised

'Sure.' he said and scrawled his signature across it. 'Was she going to be coming with yu?' he asked and handed me back the ticket.

'Oh yeah, she just came down with a flu and my mom won't let her out of her sight.' I lied. He smiled.

'Oh okay!' he said, and turned to a girl who was asking for a picture. 'Lovely meeting you!' he called as I moved away. I grinned

'You too!' I called back. Trying to keep my cool over the fact I'd just met Zack Merrick. Now I needed to find Alex. He was Jess's favourite member and I said I'd get a picture with him for her and tell him all about her. I saw his familar face walk pat me.

'Alex.' I breathed, not realizing it was outload, he turned to look at me.

'Hey!' he said with a warm voive. 'what's your name?'

'uh, Jace.' I said, he laughed.

'It's like Jasey.' i laughed

'wow, never realised that! Do you mind if I get a picture with you? It's for my little sister.'

'Sure!' he said 'Hey Jacko!' he called and I saw Jack look over. 'Would you come take our picture?' he rolled his eyes and walked over. This was becoming to much for me. I was surrounded by my favourite band and they were talking to me like we'd known eachother our whole lives. Alex put an arm around me and I felt my cheeks heat up, Jack took it and handed me back my camera.

'Thnaks.' I managed to mumble

'No problemo!' he said and skipped away.

'So could your sister not be here to get the picture?' Alex asked

'Uh no, she's in hospital.' I said. Jess had asked that I told Alex about her.

'Oh, why?' he said.

'She has lung cancer.' i said my voice cracking.

'Oh god.' Alex muttered. 'I'm so sorry.'

'It's not your fault.' I said on the verge of tears. He looked at me and then stepped forward and embraced me. I was caught slightly of guard but returned the hug.

'Okay, so if the band could head backstage!' i heard a voice call and Alex pulled away.

.Come backstage!' he said

'what?

'come backstage.' he repeated, smiling.

'I can't my friend is waiting for me and'

'Okay.' he said and looked around once before pulling two pieces of paper from his pocket and handed them to me. i looked down at them and my eyes widened. Backstage passes.

'why are you giving me these?' I said in shock.

'I feel bad for making you cry.' he said and I swear I saw his cheeks clour slightly.

'Alex time to go!' I heard Rian call and we both looked at him.

'Two minutes.' Alex replied and turned back to me. I looked around and noticed the place was no empty. 'The door to get backstage is just beside our merchtable on the left, show the guy your passes and you can sit beside the stage if you want.' he said, I beamed.

'Thank you so much.' I said, grinning.

'Its no problem I-'

'ALEX!'

'Gotta go!' he said, gave me a wave and dashed off backstage. I looked down at the passed and squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. I wasn't dreaming. I ran quickly away to find Nicki.' I stood by the merch table and the fans waiting outside were let in. There was a few minutes of desperatley looking around until she showed up.

'Ready?' she said and I smiled at her.

'I've got a surprise for you!' i siad and walked to the left of the table and sure enough there was a door with a huge security man standing in front of it. I gave him the passes and pulled a confused looking Nicki backstage.

'Oh, I met Alex and he gave me backstage passes, no big deal.' i said to her and her eyes widened.

'No way.' she said

'way.'

**JACK**

'You made this girl cry?' Rian said raising his eye brows at Alex.

'Yep' he replied, Zack scoffed at him. Alex gave him a cols stare.

'It wasn't on purpose.' He argued. 'Her sister had cancer for fucks sake.'

'Oh.' Zack said and gave him an apologetic look.

'So what does she look like?' I added in, Alex smiled.

'She's gorgeuos.' he said, a child like grin on his face. 'Really dark brown hair, pale skin, skriking blue eyes.' I LOOKED UP AT zACK AND rIAN WHO LOOKED AT ME AND WE ALL KNEW IT he was falling hard and fast. He's literally just met this girl. I looked at Alex who was staring somewhere over my shoulder.

'She's here already.' he muttered and fixing his hair called 'Jace!' i turned around and looked at the girl, she was exactly how he'd described her and she was really pretty.

'Guys this is Jace.' he said and pulled her over. she looked extremley self concious and was blushing, her friend following behind her looking sufficiently more confident..

'it's great to meet you.' I said smiling, she smiled back.

'So we don't have to go on for about another hour if you wanna hang out?' Alex said to Jace who nodded.

**JACE**

**I sat in a backroom with Alex, **Kicki had disappeared off with the guys. My mom finally picked up the phone, she was visiting Jess in the hosptial tonight.

'Hello sweetie, you're calling early, I thought the opening acts were stil on?' she said sounding slightly worried.

'They are mom, long story. Is Jess there?'

'Yeah, I'll just get her.' she said

'Hiya Jace!' said my chirpy little sisters voice.

'Hey Jessie! there's someone here who really want to talk yo you.' I said and smiled at Alex, who was grinning at me.

'Okay?' she said, I passed the phone to Alex

'Hey Jessica this is Alex.' i heard alot of yelling from the other end of the phone and Alex chuckling.

'Yeah, I met your lovely sister at the meet and greet and she told me all about you.' Alex said to my sister. I sat and listened while he talked to my sister for ages, they talked about music, her favoutite All Time Low song. Everything. Eventually Matt came in and told him he had to go on stage soon. he said goodbye to Jess and got up to leave, he stopped at the door and walked back. he grabbed a pen of the table and grabbed my hand. I felt my cheeks flame. He wrote something down, smiled at me and ran off. I looked down at my hand, it was his number.


	2. as beauty falls

Me and Nicki sat just off the side of the stage while the guys were on. I was juts going over the events of the night and trying to remember theat they were real. I had to keep pinching my arm, thinking I was going to wake up and I hadn't even come to the gig yet. After the gig was over the guys ran backstage, I knew they weren't actually finished with the show because they hand't played Dear Maria yet. I stood with Alex and waitited and sure enough the crowd started to chant.

'ALL TIME LOW! ALL TIME LOW!' they were all screaming at the top of their lungs.

'Don't keep them waiting!' I had to scream loud enough for Alex to hear. He laughed and the guys ran back out onto the stage, the crowd gave a defening cheer. I looked at my watch, 10.18pm.

'Hey can we go?' I yelled at Nicki 'I want to see Jess before the opening hours of the hosptial close!'

'Yeah sure!' she screamed back at me. I got up and stopped, I looked over and noticed a huge rack of guitars. I recognised Alex's bright green one. I searched in my pocket for a minute before finding a scrap of paper. I sciblled my number across it, bent down and pushed the paper through the strings of his guitar and ran out after Nicki. We got outside to her car and the warm night air of Nashville washed over me. it was only a 15 minute drive to the hospital and visitors were allowed in until 11. Nicki drove reletively fast and I was starting to feel bad for not saying good bye to Alex but I wanted to see Jess so bad! we got to the hospital and I was allowed in, the receptionist knew who I was now. I visited Jess nearly everyday. She let us is and i wandered down the oh so familiar route to her hospital room. I did our special secret knock on the door.

'Jace!' she called from inside 'Come in!' i wandered in and she was grinning widely at me. 'I can't believe you met him and he called!'

'Who's the best sister int he world?' I said

'YOU ARE!' she half yeled excitedly. I shushed her, there was probably people sleeping here.

'How are you feeling?' I said and sat down on her bed.

'I'm alright, tired though.' she said and leaned back against her pillows. 'Will you sign to me again Jace?' I smiled and lay down on her bed with her. The nurses didn't mind me doing this, most of Jess's doctors knew me so it was fine. she suffled into my arms and i hugged her against my chest.

'What do you want me to sing?' i said into her soft hair.

'Lullabies.' she said quietly. I smiled, and began into the familiar song. I felt her relaz in my arms about half way through. I looked down and she was sound asleep. I sat for a while just brushing my fingers through her hair. She's always had the most beautiful ahir I'd ever seen, it was lony, think and golden. It always sat in perfect ringlests around her shoulders. Mine on the other hand took constant fixing to get it to ever sit right.

'Thats the visitor hours about to finish.' said a voice at the door. Susie the receptionist was tanding there. I smiled at her and pulled my fingers out of Jess's hair. My eyes widened in shock, there was a huge clump if her hair sitting in my hands. no. this wasn't happening. she was starting to lose her hair. I shook of the hair, i'm sure she's fine. I just accidentaly pulled it out a bit of her hair, no big deal. I found Nicki in the waiting room and she drove me home.

'See you tomorrow Jace.' she said as I got out her car.

'Bye Nick.' I said smiling and went up to the house. I opened the front door and heard the theme tune to friends playing from the living room. I rolled my eyes and walked in, my mom was sitting in her pajamas.

'Oh hey sweetie.' she said smiling at me. I looked at my broken shell of a mother, she may be broken but she's stronger than I will ever be. My dad had left us when I was 10. He's never even bothered to call again to see how we were doing. I doubt he would even care if we told him about Jess. My mother had been left with a three year old toddler and a 10 year old to raise by herself. Then when Jess had gotten cancer a few months back she stayed strong but now she seemed worn out. I was going to move out but then Jess had gotten sick and I knew I could never leave my mom alone. I walked over to her and sat down beside her on the couch.

'How was the gig then?' she said smiling weakly at me.

'It was great mom, you'll never believe what happened!' I said and went into telling her the story.

'Thats so great sweetie.' she said when I was done. 'I Think I'm going to bed, see you tomorrow.' I watched her leave and let out a long sigh. I sat for ages just watching friends reruns until well into the morning when I fell asleep fully clothed and on the couch. the phone ringing the next morning pulled me out of my sleep. I groaned and looked over at the clock. 2pm. Oh shit! my mum fogot to wake me up before she went to work. I pulled my phone from the table.

'hello?' I mumbled

'Hello, Jace?' said a woman's voice from the other end of the phone.

'Yes?'

'Its Susie from the hospital,' she said 'It's your sister she has a raging temperature and she's asking for you.'

'Oh god. I'm coming, I'll be there as soon as possible okay?'

'Okay and Jace, her hair is starting to fall out, that's not a good sign.'

'Okay.' i whispered 'I'll be there in 10 minutes okay?' I hung up the phone and ran to the door. I dashed into my car and jammed the key into the ignition and went, as fast as i could to the hospital. I got there and ran straight to her room. I stopped at her door to catch my breath for a second before going in. She was lying in the bed looking pale.

'Hey there Jessie.' I said and she smiled and patted the bed next to her. I walked over and lay down next to her. She snuglled up in my arms.

'Jace, will you brush my hair?' she said slightly sadly.

'Why sweetie?' I said stroking her head.

'Its all gonna be gone soon.' she said.

'Don't talk like that Jess.' I said frowning. 'Your hair will be fine and soon you'll be well and home again, okay? just you wait.'

I spent all day with her, she had me re-do her hair about five times though. There were huge clumps if it coming out on the brush though and by the end of the day there were noticeble gaps in her perfect hair. We were sitting watching The Lion King on the T.V. in her hospital room when my phone started to ring. There was an unknown number flashing up on my screen. I shrugged and answered it.

'Hello?'

'Hey Jace, it's Alex.' said his voice form thr other end of the phone.

'Oh hey.' I said

'Just found your note on my guitar.' he said 'cute.' I felt my cheeks flush as I laughed

'Oh you liked it?'

'Yes, and you had me thinking you'd just ran away from me.' I laughed

'Sorry I wanted to go visit my sister.' I said and she looked at me, I smiled down at her.

'Oh okay, how is she?' he asked

'She's alright.' I said

'Listen I'd realy love to meet your sister.' he said, I smiled.

'Really? I think she's really love that.'

'Yeah, well once this tours over can I meet her?' he said, he sounded pretty excited.

'Yeah that would actually be amazing!' I said 'when's it finished?' I was doing my best not to let on to Jess who I was talking to.

'Okay i goota go, Matt's getting on case cause everyone's _sleeping.'_ I laughed

'Okay, I'll see you soon then.' I said and hung up.

'Who was that.' Jess asked.

'Just Nicki.' i replied and looked back at the Lion King.


	3. the leaves are falling

a few months passed and Jess was getting better, the cancer cells were still there but she was better. All of her hair had fallen out though but she was allowed to come home. my mom was driving us back from the hosital, Jess was sitting in the front seat with the window down, lletting the soft warm air of Nashville wash over her skin. I was sitting texting Alex, who by the way was coming to meet Jess tomorrow. I had told mom anbout Alex coming over and she was pretty happy he was coming, she knew how much All Time Low we're Jess's favourite band and it would make her so happy. I helped Jess up to her bed and tucked her in. I smiled at her and brushed a hair from her face.

'Jace?' she said in s strage tone

'Yes Jessie?' I said smiling

'Am I going to die?' she whispered.

'No.'

'how not?'

'because I'll never let that happen. Okay?'

'Promise?' she whispered.

'Promise.' i leaned down and kissed her head. 'Now get some sleep.' I walked out her room, switching the light off as I went. My mu had gone to bed as soon as we had got home, sometimes I felt like I was all that was holding this family together. I pushed open my laptop and opened twitter.

AlexAllTimeLow is now following you.

I smiled to myself. A few months back I would have literally died of a fangirl attack if that had happened but now things were different. Alex was my friend, I liked him alot. Maybe a little too much but I couldn't tell if they were real feelings or just me reacting to the fact he's Alex fucking Gaskarth. I had a new DM, i opened it up. It was from Alex.

'Hey! looking forward to seeeing you agaon tomorrow and meeting Jess! how are you/she? xx ;)'

the kisses at the end made my heart nearly stop, I took a few breaths before replying.

'I'm great but she's starting to worry me, she's talking about death and it terrifys me :/' i typed out, my finger hovered over the send button before I plucked up the courage to hit it. He replied seconds later.

'Do you want to talk? we can go on skype if you want to?'

'Yes please' I replied and a few minutes later his face popped up on y screen, I smiled at him.

'Hey Jacey!' he said cheerfully

'Hi Alex.' I replied, he frowned.

'Tell me what happened?' he said, i sighed and started to tell him what Jess had said to me. Just thinking about it made me emotional.

'Hey, hey Jace don't cry.' Alex said

'I don't want her to die.' I choked out.

'Shh, it's okay, she'll be fine okay?' he said soothingly and I nodded, brushing away the tears. My eyeliner smudging of on my hands.

'Ugh, I look like shit.' i mutters.

'You look beautiful Jace.' Alex said, I hadn't entended for him to hear that. I smiled at him embrassed.

'You're blushing.' he said sweetly, which just made my cheeks flush more.

'I'll see you tomorrow Alex.' I said giggling, not wanting to embaress myself more.

'Goodbye Jacey, can't wait to see you.' he said and then his face disappeared as the call ended. I sat for a minute, taking in deep breaths, before a huge smile split across my face. Alex was the first guy I'd liked in a very long time. The last releationship ended soon after Jess was diagnosed. He never found out about her but it was just I had suddenly stopped spending time with him and he dumped me in an instant, without even asking for the reason but Alex was different. He actually cared for me. Smiling to myself I dragged myself to bed, not wanting to look like a zombie for Alex tomorrow.

i was aoken the next morning by the doorbell ringing, i looked at my clock. It was 1.30. SHIT. Alex was here. I threw myself out of bed.

'MOM CAN YOU GET THAT I SLEPT THROUGH MY ALARM!' i screamed down the stairs. I saw her walk to the door laughing to herself. I ran into the bathroom and brushed my hair as quickly as possible, threw on makeup and got dressed in the space of 5 mintes. I half ran down the stairs and into the living room. Alex was sitting awkwardly on my couch, talking to my mom. He looked up and smiled when he saw me.

'Hey.' he said and walked over to me gaving me a one armed hug.

'Hello, its great to see you again.' I said and he smiled. 'Jess is still asleep I think?' I looked at my mom who nodded. 'Come on.' I took his hand and led him to her room, I smiled as he squeezed my hand. I pushed open her bedroom door, she was sound asleep in her bed.

'wake up sweetie.' I said and she groaned. I shoved Alex inside her room. He walked over to her bed and crouched down next to it.

'Good morning Jess.' he said and her eyes snnapped open.

'Alex?' she said sitting up. He nodded.

'What are you-?' she saw me at the door and grinned.

'You are the best sister ever.' she said

'I know.' I said laughing and sitting down next to her bed. 'What do you want to do today?'

'I want to go to the forest.' she said, I smiled. There was a huge forrest near our house, before she got sick we used to go there all the time.

'Sure Jessie, if that's what you want?' she nodded. 'Okay we'll leave you to get ready.' I said and me and Alex left her room. He was on his phone when we got back down stairs. I sat talking to him until Jess showed up, she was wearing a beanie along with her usual clothes. She's been wearing hats practically 24/7 recently. She hated the fact that she'd lost all her hair.

'You ready?'

'Yeah, lets go.' she said smiling. I noticed she had big dark circles under her eyes and she loooked paler than usual.

'You ready to go?' I asked and she smiled

'Yep lets leave.' she said

we headed out, the forrest was a 10 minute walk from out house but it was a beautiful day. Normally the weather in Nashville was blistering hot but today there was a cool breeze that was really comfortable. Alex was on his phone the whole way, smirking to himself. I coudn't help feeling a pang of annoyance inside me, he was probably texting his girlfriend or something.

'Who you texting?' I asked when we were nearly there.

'No-one.' he said with a smile and pushed his phone away. I wanted to know but I didn't want to seem pushy so I dropped the subject. We made it to the forrest and were about to walk in when Alex stopped.

'Jess wait a second' he said smiling 'I have a surprise for you.' he pointed to where we had just walked and Jack, Zack and Rian were running towards us. nThe biggest smile appeared on Jessie's face.


	4. I don't want to leave you alone

Me and Alex walked ahaed as Jessie was deep in conversation with the guys.

'You're amazing you know that?' I said as we walked deeper into the forest. He smiled.

'Nah, Jessie's a sweet kid, it's nothing.' he said, I smiled though inside i couldn't help but feel slightly sad he wasn't doing any of this for me.

'Yeah.' I said, sounding slightly strangled. I cleared my throat, Alex looked at me.

'Though Jess isn't the only reason I'm here.' he said shyly, stopping walking.

'Hmm?' I asked, stopping as well and turning to face him. He locked my gaze and I could feel my heart rate speeding up. Alex leaned towards me, our lips were about an inch apart when

'Hey Alex?' Rian called from somewhere to our left. Alex snapped away quickly.

'Yeah?' he called and walked to where Rian was. I looked down at my feet, a strange feeling sitting in the pit of my stomach. What was it? Disapointment? Relief? I shook it off and walked after Alex. We spent all day in the woods, Jess seemed to be having the time of her life, whether it was Zack giving her a piggy back up the montain or playing tag with Jack or having Rian teach her drum beats with sticks on a log I didn't know. All I knew was she'd never been happier. Eventually though it got dark and we had to go home.

'I had the best day ever!' Jess said grinning as the guys stood in our doorway, about to leave.

'It was no problem sweetie,' Zack said 'It was the best day for us too!'

'We'll see you soon okay?' Rian said and Jess nodded. They all hugged her and walked to their car except for Alex.

'I'll see you soon?' Alex said to me, I smiled.

'Definatley.' He gave me a sad smile and turned to leave. I couldn't do it. I couldn't let him leave with out finishing it.

'Alex!' I said as he was hallfway down ou drive, he spun round and I ran over to him. I grabbed the front of his shirt and and pulled him towards me. Pushing our lips together, I felt him start to kiss me back and his arms snaked around me. I heard Zack wolf whistle and Jack yell 'get a room.' I pulled away from Alex.

'You didn't get to do it earlier.' I said to him smiling. He grinned at me and I let go of him. He walked over to the car and climbed in, I waved as the car disappeared down the street. I turned back to the house, grinning to myself. Jess was smiling at me.

'Was he a good kisser?' she asked as I got there. I just laughed, but the truth is, he was amazing. His lips were soft and tasted faintly of vanilla and jelly beans and I don't know why.

The next morning I woke up and felt like there was a huge smile constantly plastered on my face. Everything seemed so much brighter and better. I wandered into Jess's room.

'Morning.' I said, she groaned.

'Are you alright?' I asked

'Just tired.' she said. I felt her forehead, it as volcano heat.

'Jess you're burning up!' I said

'It's just a temperature, I'm fine. Really, I am.' she said.

'Okay, see if your any better tomorrow and if not I'm taking you to the doctor again.' I said, she nodded and I walked out. I'm sure she's fine. On the other hand I now have mo clue what to do with myself today. I wander downstairs, my mom was at work already. I walk around aimlessly for a while, trying to think of anything worthwhile I cold do. The phone rings and I rush to pick it up.

'Hello?' I said into the speaker.

'Hey!' Alex's familar voice said.

'Oh it's you.' I said grinning 'How are you?'

'I'm great had the best day of my life yesterday.'

'And what was it that made it the best day?'

'Oh just the girl I've been after for a while now finally noticed me.' he said and I blushed. 'You're blushing right now aren't you?.'

'Shut up.' I groaned and he chuckled.

'You know you love it.' he said and I laughed.

'Meh.'

'What? you don't love my amazing charm?'

'I guess, I would proabably appriciate it more if you were here though.'

'Yeah, I know. Go to the window.'

'What?'

'Go to the window.' I frowned and wandered ove r, he was sating on the street just outside mt house. I pushed the window open.

'You should be in Maryland right now.' I said and he shrugged.

'Didn't want to leave.' he said simply, I smiled and walked to the front door, opening it to let him in. He grinned at me and wandered in.

'How's Jess?' he asked

'She's alright, kinda tired, you guys must have worn her out' I said, chuckling, closing the door behind him.

'So what you wanna do?' Alex asked, a cute smile on his face.

'If you plan on keeping it my house then great.' I said 'I can't leave her alone.'

'Oh.' he said before smiling again 'Okay.'

'What you got planned then?' I asked

'Where do you keep all your DVD's?' he asked, I frowned slightly but walked into my living room. Pulling the drawer out that sat under the TV that held all our movies. He sat down next to me.

'Okay so pick all the worst movies you have.' he said, I did what he said and pulled out The Bratz Movie (Jess's old one) Twilight, Pucker Punch and Super Man IV.

'Okay.' Alex said and I felt his hands go over my eyes. 'Okay pick a number between 1 and 4.'

'3' I said, smiling as Alex groaned.

'Looks like we're stuck with twilight.' he grumbled.

'We could watch something else?' I suggested.

'No way, that difies the rules of the game.' he said laughing. I shrugged and put in the DVD.

I got up and sat next to him on the couch. 'Ahem.' he said obviously, I looked over at him and he waved his arm, motioning me to sit under it. I grinned and curled up under his arm as the titles came on.


	5. I'm sorry

'Well that sucked.' Alex stated as the end credits rolled onto the screen.

'Whoa really? You didn't like it?' Isaid sarcastically, resting my head against his chest.

'No way! I loved the part when he went in to creeper mode and watched her sleep.' he said, starting to absent mindedly play with my hair.

'So you've never watched me sleep?' I said, looking up at him.

'dammit.' he muttered 'You caught me.'

I laughed and got up 'You want something to eat?'

'Yeah sure.' he said and linked his fingers in mine, following me to the kitchen. I opened the fridge. Empty. My mom had forgotten to go shopping. Again.

'Well.' I said, inspecting the contents we actually had 'I can make you mustard and pickles on crackers with ceral and warm milk?'

'Or...' Alex said, wrapping his arms round my waist from behind. 'We could just prder pizza.'

'That would be a good idea.' I said laughing. He pulled his phone out his pocket.

'What do you want?' he said

'Just whatever.' I said 'I'm gonna go check on Jess.' I wandered off up the stairs, I gently pushed open her door.

'Jessie?' I said quietly. She didn't reply. 'Jess?' I repeated. Nothing. I wandered over and pulled the duvet off her face. She had huge dark cirlces under her eyes and her face was as pale as I've ever seen it. I shook her as gently as possible. She opened one eye and squinted at me with one eye.

'Are you alright, you're so pale...' I said my sentence trailing offf as I felt her forehead. She was still burning up. 'I'm taking you back to the hospital.'

'Okay.' she mumbled and I helped her up.

I was about to start walking to the door when she started to cough, I stopped and let her finish. She coughed once more violently and blood sluttered out her mouth and nose as she collapsed to the ground.

'oh my god.' I muttered 'ALEX!' I screamed as loud as i could. A few moments later, he was standing in the door.

'What is it?' he said and walked over 'Oh god.'

'Call an ambulance.' I chocked out, starting to cry.

An hour later I was sitting on an orange plastic chair outside her hostial bed. My eyes were dry and ichty from crying so much. I was gripping onto the sides of the chair, my fingers going numb and my knuckles turning white. Alex's phone started to ring and I jumped, he gave me a weak smile.

'It's Zack, probably wondering where I am.' he said 'do you mind? I'll be two minutes.'

I shook my head, to numb to speak. My tongue felt heavy inside my mouth. He gave me a torn look, bent over and kissed my forehead before wanding down the hall and answering his phone. I stared at my lap, I hated to think what I looked like at the moment, I felt my dark. messy hair fall in my face. There was a renching pain in my gut and my head was splitting. I heard her door creak open and my head snapped up, a doctor walked out and turned to me. I recognised him, he was one of Jess's regulars. He was quite young, no older than 30 had dirty blonde hair and kind deep blue eyes but his name slipt my mind at the moment.

'How is she?' I said quietly, standing up. My voice coming out horse, he gave me a sad, sympathetic smile. That was never good.

'She's okay at the moment Jace,' He said silkily, it was kind of soothing 'But her cancer cells have gotten worse, it's not looking good Jace, we've tried everything but...' his voice trailed off.

'Is she going to die?' I whispered.

'I'm sorry Jace.' he said resting a hand on my shoulder. I shook my head, waving off his sympathy. I felt his hand drop of my shoulder and two warm arms pull me agaist them. I breathed in Alex's familiar scent and I sobbed quietly into his chest. I felt his grip tighten on my shoulders.

'I'll leave you.' said the doctor

'No.' I said turned towards him, breaking Alex's grip on me. 'Can I see her?' He nodded somberly and motioned me to the door. I took Alex's hand and he squeezed mine. He led us into her room where a few doctors were standing around her. One pretty female nurse I hadn't seen before looked over at us and smiled.

'You must be Jace?' she said with a friendly voice that had a southern drawl to it. I nodded, my eyes glued to Jess, who looked so frail and broken. 'she's been asking for you.' she leaned over Jess and shook her extremley gently, her perfectly manicure fingers barely even touching her. Jess's eyes flickered open and she smiled weakly at me.

'Hey there Jacey.' she said, her voice sounding strangled.

'Hi Jessie.' I said as smoothly as I could, it didn't work too well. I walked over to her, I looked up at the pretty nurse. Silently asking to sit on Jess's bed, she gave me a nod and I sat beside Jess on her bed.

'Hiya Alex.' Jess said, looking over at him with a small smiled flickering at the sides of her mouth.

'Hey sweetie.' he said and sat down in the chair next to her bed.

'Jace.' said the doctor from the hall, I looked at him. 'Could I talk to you for a second?'

I spilt of Jace's bed and followed him out the door. Dreading what he had to say to me. I got out and turned to him, I noticed he had a name, Jake. It was quite a young name and he was a doctor, it was almost conforting in a way. He smiled at me, I grimaced back.

'I'm sorry to tell you this Jace but you're going ton want to spend as much time as you can with Jess, this might just be temporary but there's a good chance she might not make it through.' I would cry but my eyes were completely dry and I felt completeley numb. I just nodded.

'I'm sorry Jace.' he said again, I sighed and turned back into Jace's room.


End file.
